Workplaces Becoming Greener In Recession

Workplaces Becoming Greener In Recession Created on 09/11/2012 13:13:00

The age of austerity is making us more environmentally conscious at work. A YouGov national poll found that nearly half the UK’s office workers said their offices have actively become greener as a result of the economic downturn as staff put more effort into recycling, turning off unused lights and saving on the heating bill.

Fifty per cent of office workers say they have personally become more green and 24% say they could be even greener at work with more encouragement from managers.

Experts in Corporate Social Responsibility are reporting that the current recession is another factor forcing many workplaces to become greener, with more and more office workers are behaving in an environmentally sound and more efficient manner. For companies deciding where to locate their offices or making office space rental decisions, choosing a greener office environment makes financial sense, particularly with new environmental regulations – and penalties for breaching them - are brought in.

Mindful of these trends, Havant’s Langstone Technology Park which offers office space rental in the Portsmouth area upped its environmental credentials in Autumn 2012 significantly by introducing a renewable source of energy across the site.

In order to ensure that businesses taking up office space rental onsite have access to competitively priced energy at Langstone Technology Park, its management company, Fasset, regularly goes out to tender to the open wholesale market. Whilst green contracts have previously featured in the shortlist this was the first year that energy produced by a sustainable source came out top.

Haven Power (part of Drax Power) was selected in Autumn 2012 as the supplier of ‘Biomass’ energy to Langstone Technology Park. Haven is an experienced business-to-business electricity supplier with circa 40,000 customer sites nationwide. Biomass is the 4th largest energy source in the world after coal, oil and gas. It is estimated that by 2050 it could supply the world with 10-20% of its primary energy requirements.

As a fuel source, it is carbon neutral, using agricultural bi-products, purpose grown energy crops and organic waste. The result is a very flexible, cost effective source of available renewable power that can also be sustainable. As it is a renewable energy, it is exempt from the government’s ‘Climate Change Levy’ (CCL) and Haven Power has provided this at a lower rate than conventional power, so businesses at Langstone should see a reduction in energy costs over time.

Fasset’s Business Excellence Manager, Shirley Cuthbertson leads the company’s environmental programme and was instrumental in the attainment of ISO14001 which the company has now held for 5 years. Her team has implemented many environmental initiatives across Langstone Technology Park, to offset its energy usage such as more efficient lighting, a dramatic reduction in the volume of waste to landfill, a car sharing scheme; and water reduction programmes.

Speaking about this announcement she says, “We are giving companies the ability to positively impact their own green credentials just by doing what they are doing; complementing their own initiatives and raising awareness. I am confident that we are one of the only business parks in the area to adopt this level of environmental commitment and hope that others follow our lead”.